WBGO Highlights the Institute's Day of Empathy Arts Workshop

Nearly 40 troubled youth from Newark and the surrounding areas recently took part in the National Day of Empathy, an initiative devoted to creating empathy for those affected by incarceration. One particular workshop allowed them to express their feelings about their experiences within the juvenile justice system through art. It's all part of a partnership with The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Youthbuild Newark, My Brother's Keeper, and Yendor Productions...

Ryan P. Haygood is Executive Director [sic] of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, a partner in the workshop.

“We really want to channel what really has been a lost emotion among many in our communities, and that is empathy. We know that this nation has really experienced a crisis in the mass incarceration phenomenon and what we think is that we need is more seasonable ways to respond. Black people, young people, are 75 percent of those incarcerated, and that is a reflection, we think, of discriminatory policy decisions that are being made that can be changed to really reform the youth incarceration system in New Jersey to be more rehabilitative, be more restorative, and be less discriminatory and more fair."